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Top 20 courtesy of the World Economic Forum

In looking at the ranking of the world’s 20 best countries for women, as measured annually by the World Economic Forum, one nation seems glaringly absent. Here's an obvious hint: it bleeds red, white and blue.

What’s even more concerning that we fall behind much smaller and economically weaker nations in three out of four major metrics (health and wellness, educational attainment, political empowerment and economic participation)? The fact that the U.S. has actually fallen in the rankings over the past three years.

The Global Gender Gap Index has been used since 2006 as a tool to capture gender-based disparities and track their progress on a country-by-country and global scale. By measuring national gender gaps in economic, political, health and educational metrics, the ranking allows for fair comparisons of nations from varying regions and income groups—but more importantly, how those nations have changed in recent years. The goal of the WEF’s annual efforts? To put global gender disparity on display, in hopes that public awareness and pressure narrows them over time.

The United States, where just over 3%% of major CEOs are women and the gender pay gap hovers around 70 cents on the dollar, ranks at No. 22, down from 17 in 2011 and 19 in 2010. “The U.S. has dropped,” says the WEF’s Saadia Zahidi, one of the report's co-authors and Head of Gender Parity and Human Capital at the Forum, “But because the countries at the top are really bunched together, very small deteriorations can affect rankings. For example the U.S. has seen a slight deterioration in women in political decision-making this year, which has caused other nations to jump ahead.” The United States currently ranks at No. 55 in political empowerment, No. 33 in health and survival rates, No. 8 in economic participation and opportunity, and No. 1 in educational attainment for women.

Overall, 85 out of the 135 nations measured have improved their economic equality between 2011 and 2012 but Zahidi notes that while this shows encouraging signs that the global gender gap is closing, it’s moving at a glacial pace. When combined, the nations measured represent more than 90% of the world’s population—and numbers show that almost 96% of the gap in health outcomes (life expectancy and sex ratio at birth) have been closed for women as well as 93% of the gap in educational attainment. However, the disparity between men and women in economic participation and political empowerment remains wide: only 60% of the economic empowerment and just 20% of the political participation gender gap have been closed.

But there is some good news, Zahidi says. Europe continues to top the rankings with Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden having closed their gender gaps by over 80%. “And there are definitely countries that are making very fast progress,” she says. “Nine countries have improved by more than nine percentage points, and it’s positive to note that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the fastest-changing.” Still, when you look at the world as a whole, about 75% of the countries have made less than 5% progress in the past twelve months.

"It continues to be interesting to me that the Nordic countries have consistently been in the top 10," says Zahidi, particularly as their economies have struggled in recent years. "But the reason this occurs is because they've completely closed the gaps in health and education--but the region continues to be No. 1 in political empowerment and economic participation as well."

Very low salary gap, high numbers of women in the labor force, and leadership positions--whether enforced by a quota system or done voluntarily, has made all the difference, she says. "But possibly more important are childcare and taxation policies that have made it possible for both women and men to combine work and family."